I really wish this entire season was dedicated to Red Dragon. The first half of the season was uneven for me, and I often felt myself drifting or that they could’ve easily cut out the pointlessness and made it shorter. Because Red Dragon deserves more screen time, and they only have a few more episodes to wrap it all up. It’s frustrating, since I figure they did the plot of the book Hannibal early since they couldn’t have Clarice. But the best part of this season so far has been the inclusion of Red Dragon, and I feel like it’s just the B story. No, we need to go on and on some more about the murder husbands and how Will and Hannibal were “intimate” (are you implying something? Or just being weird? I can’t figure it out). Also Alana Bloom is not this incompetent, how is Hannibal getting no surveillance or check ins on these phone calls? Whatever. Previously on Hannibal, Hannibal turned himself in and he’s been spending three years in the institute under Alana’s care. Will retired but he was called back in by Jack because there’s a new serial killed called the Tooth Fairy. Francis, played by Richard Armitage, has a lot of issues and thinks he’s turning into The Great Red Dragon photo. He’s also falling in love with a blind woman named Reba which will surely throw things out of whack for him and his big plans in dragon transformation.

So last week Hannibal and Francis had a conversation over the phone. I know Alana isn’t supposed to listen in on lawyer conversations, but she’s watching Hannibal like a hawk and she seems very in tune with him. So it’s strange to me that yet again a ball is dropped here and he gets his hand on a phone. At the very least, shouldn’t she be wondering why he’s calling his lawyer so much? Why now all of a sudden is he chatting with his lawyer? Chilton would be this lazy, but she wouldn’t be. It bothers me because I assume they’ll have Hannibal kill her, and I hate it’s because they’re willfully making her stupid. Anyway, he has a conversation with Francis where he gaslights him, as Hannibal is best at. They do the fun image where they’re pretending he’s in his old office and Francis is his patient. I do enjoy these visuals a lot, since we know he’s trapped, but they have some freedom to imagine him in other settings. Hannibal also manipulates a phone given to him and … rewires it? He manages to get Will’s private address information. It’s irritating how easy this was to find, I assume that Will needed a lot of f’n privacy after all the information came out and Freddie was writing about him. I know this is a major plot point in Red Dragon though so I’ll forgive it.

Meanwhile we see more of Francis and Reba. He brings her on a date to see a drugged tiger, and there is some really beautiful colors here as he describes the tiger to her. This show is really stunning when it comes to art design; it’s always been one of its strongest suits. They bond and then she makes a move and they have sex. You do worry a few times due to the tension that either the tiger or him will kill her, but that’s part of the metaphor here. She’s a lamb to the lion. Poor Reba. She seems like such a great person. He’s freaked out a little about it, and I wonder if his personal life will throw him off of his murdering. We’ll have to see. He goes to see the original The Great Red Dragon painting, and I have zero idea how he got the clearance for that. Wouldn’t that be difficult? I guess she does say they let students/teachers and researchers look at it, so maybe not. But he knocks the woman out and flat out eats the painting. Yikes. I bet that tasted gross. He’s clearly not that good at hiding, since now there are several people who have seen his face. Will gets prodded by Hannibal toward the right direction re: the painting, and he shows up there. Francis is a body builder and he tosses Will like he weighs nothing down the hall. That was pretty fun. But seriously, that’s several people who know his face. Psychopaths aren’t usually that smart about murdering though, so it fits.

Before that Will meets with Bedelia, my queen, who is lecturing about what Hannibal did to her. She’s making a cushy living off of playing his victim, when we know she was anything but. I always suspected that Bedelia was much more in control than she appeared, I’ve mentioned it in my recaps, but I think this was further proof. She’s completely calm talking about her time with Hannibal, and we flashback to when she dealt with that patient she killed. Zachary Quinto plays him, and we knew he was on the show for something, so this is a fun small appearance. He appears to be choking on something after raging about how shrinks don’t know anything and he doesn’t need medication, and Bedelia goes to try to help him. She sticks her hand in his mouth, apparently to clear his airwave, but then she stuffs her fist in and kills him. In the past they indicated that Hannibal put her in that situation, but I think it’s clear here she was no victim. She wasn’t attacked. The guy was injured and vulnerable. She tells Will when she sees an injured bird, she doesn’t want to help it, she wants to crush it. As much as I love Bedelia, I’m not sure we really have time to waste on these scenes since there are only three eps left and so much of the story left. It was still entertaining to watch though!

So now Hannibal has Will’s home address. I wonder what he’ll do with it. Just kidding, I know. It’s a good episode, like I mentioned before, I’m enjoying the story being active again instead of everyone just wandering around in metaphors talking about pretentious things. I hope the show ends in a solid way, because it’s very unlikely to get saved. Hugh Dancy got a new job. While I enjoy Hannibal and I would have been happy to continue to a fourth season, I’m not lamenting the end either. I just hope it goes out on a high note.